Sidecar MIDI Controller vs Enso Looper

There are hundreds of great iOS synth apps, but playing them with on-screen keyboards can be a challenge. Sidecar turns your ordinary QWERTY keyboard into a powerful MIDI controller.  The lower part of the keyboard is mapped piano-style, letting you play melodies with the physical keys -- much easier to keep your fingers in the right place, and to get the notes you want. The app is configurable; you can have ten different set-ups, and switch between them quickly with a tap on the "QWERTY" row. There are also ten configureable pads for each set-up, which you can trigger with the number keys. Each pad can play a specific note, a chord, generate a program change message, or send a control code. Because Sidecar operates in slide-over and side-by-side mode on the iPad, you can use your physical keyboard with any MIDI app, even if the other app is running in the background. On screen, you have access to each of the pads -- map the knobs and sliders of your synth apps to MIDI CC messages, and then use Sidecar to adjust these sliders as you play. Sidecar also provides a scale-configurable virtual keyboard. Pick the scale you want, and then you can't hit a wrong note. In addition to external keyboards, Sidecar also supports many game controllers. The app is now universal; while the iPhone doesn't support slide-over, you can still take advantage of the configuration options of the app. * Easy MIDI Configuration With ten separately configurable MIDI destinations you can quickly set up a set of assignments for each of the MIDI apps that you use. Have a set of chords for Animoog, choose different presets for ToneStack, or assign pads to different samples for DM1. Each MIDI destination has ten configurable pads, which can be assigned to chords, single notes, a program change message, or a controller change message. For notes and chords, the touch position controls note velocity. For controller change messages, the location of a touch on screen can be used to determine the controller value. * QWERTY Keyboard Support Toggle on support for the external keyboard, and you can switch between the ten MIDI destinations quickly (using the keys in the QWERTY row). Toggle on or off any of the ten pads by pressing the number keys. The two lowest rows of keys are mapped as a standard piano keyboard, providing a musical play surface with an ordinary text keyboard. Note that QWERTY keyboards only send "key press" information to your iPad -- to silence a sounding note, you simply tap the space bar. * AUv3 Support Add the plug-in to your favorite DAW or looper, and Sidecar will give you easy access to multiple synths. Many AUv3 hosts will also let you map the keyboard keys to the transport controls. * Game Controller Ready Sidecar also supports the iON iCade game controller, mapping the buttons of the iCade to the pads. Because the iCade was designed for games, it sends button press and release information, which makes it easy to toggle on and off the pads. * MIDI Relay If you have an external MIDI controller, you can have it send MIDI events to Sidecar -- and these will be relayed to any of the ten MIDI destinations you select. Use this to quickly switch from one synth to another. *Control Background Synths Because Sidecar sends MIDI messages, it can be used to control background synthesizers, sequencers, and effects apps. Sidecar is designed to work along side your other iOS music apps.

Enso is a looper. Not a phrase sampler, not a beat slicer: a real looper, built in the image of the pedal loopers and reel-to-reel tape systems that defined the form, then extended well past what hardware can do. Press one button and it records; press it again and you are looping. Up to five minutes of stereo audio, host-synced or free-running. The play and record heads are completely decoupled, each with its own through-zero speed control from -4x to +4x. Play backwards at half speed while overdubbing forwards at double, and things get strange in the best way. Four sectors give you separate loop regions to crossfade between and overdub within, and a built-in effects section (tape-style saturation and hiss, filters, and chorus) can sit in the feedback path so your loop ages like tape with every pass. Enso runs as an AUv3 plugin in your favorite host, and includes a standalone mode for sketching. FEATURES - Full automatic looping engine: simple to learn, exceedingly powerful, with one-button looping control, both host-synced and free time. - Independent play and record heads: through-zero speed from -4x to +4x on each, with selectable increment and decrement values. - Dub In Place: work like a traditional digital looper, or like a tape looper with the effects and speed changes in the feedback path. - Sector crossfading: define four start and end points, crossfade between them, and overdub or re-record within them. - Effects section: tape-style saturation and hiss, high- and low-pass filters, and a stereo chorus. - MIDI Slice mode: play your loop from a MIDI controller, automatically sliced into 4 to 16 equal pieces. - Full MIDI CC implementation: an assignable MIDI CC page covers most of the looping engine, tuned for foot control. - Auto RTZ: automatically return to zero at a chosen interval to keep loose material in sync. - Cross-platform preset format: XML presets that can store the buffer, compatible with the desktop version of Enso. No subscriptions and no nonsense. Buy it once and it is yours, with free updates. Enso is also available for Mac, Windows, and Linux at audiodamage.com.